Konstanz

Summary: It was not until 1849 that the ban on Jewish settlement in the town of Konstanz was rescinded. A Jewish community was organized in 1863, but was affiliated with Tingen until 1897, when the independent Jewish community of Konstanz was founded. Local Jews established a series of prayer rooms after 1864; a cemetery in 1869; a synagogue, at 19 Sigismundstrasse, in 1883; and a community center with a library and a kosher restaurant in 1897, the same year in which the community hired a rabbi. Konstanz hosted a district rabbinate after 1925. In 1933, many Jewish associations and branches of national Jewish organizations were active in Konstanz; 68 Jewish children studied religion that year. Although the synagogue was set on fire in 1936, it was renovated in 1937. In 1938, in response to the expulsion of Jewish children from public schools, a Jewish school was opened in Konstanz. Local Polish Jews were deported to Poland in October 1938. The synagogue was blown up with dynamite on Pogrom Night. Ritual objects and books from the community center were confiscated, and Jewish men (and several women) were arrested, some of whom were brutally beaten and sent to Dachau, where one died. Three hundred and forty-four Jews moved to Konstanz during the Nazi period, 338 emigrated, 251 relocated within Germany and 60 died in Konstanz. On October 22, 1940, 110 Jews were deported to Gurs; six were deported to the East in April 1942. At least 102 local Jews perished in the Shoah. Several survivors returned to Konstanz in 1945. A new building had been built on the former synagogue site, and it was there that these Jews established a prayer room. The new Jewish community of Konstanz, founded in 1988, hired a rabbi in 2005. A plaque and a memorial stone have been unveiled at the synagogue site and at the cemetery, respectively. The Jewish cemetery was enlarged in 1981.

Author / Sources: Heike Zaun Goshen
Sources: AH, AJ, EJL, HU
Juedische Gemeinde Konstanz